When choosing a doctor for ourselves or a loved one, most of us wouldn’t think of picking one randomly out of cyberspace or letting our pet chicken pick for us. We’d want a more reliable method for choosing only the best.

While finding “the best” of anything sometimes can be an exercise in trial and error, it isn’t in this case. We have a way of knowing exactly which docs lead their field thanks to the work of Best Doctors, Inc., a Boston-based organization that conducts the largest continuous independent survey of the medical profession. From Best Doctors, Inc., Sacramento magazine has secured the rights to publish the names of 194 local physicians representing 51 specialties and subspecialties and four respected health networks, including Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, UC Davis and Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West). The list is excerpted from the 2013 “The Best Doctors in America” database.

The doctors are chosen through a process similar to the informal peer-to-peer process doctors themselves use to connect their patients to the right specialists. Doctors surveyed have the option of commenting confidentially on their colleagues and are free to make other nominations. A team of researchers employed by the organization confirms credentials and specific areas of expertise.

Doctors do not pay to be included on the list. They are not paid to be listed and cannot nominate or vote for themselves. All survey information is kept confidential.

In connection with our published list of the best local docs, we decided to find out what factors some of these doctors attribute to their high level of competence. So we asked them: “What experience do you believe made you a better doctor?”

While the responses were as varied as the physicians themselves, a common theme did emerge: Sometimes the best way to become a better doctor is to walk a mile in the patient’s nonslip hospital socks.

Here, nine of the area’s Best Doctors describe in their own words the experiences they feel had a profound influence on the way they practice medicine.

2013 BEST DOCTORS

DAVID TAI, M.D. (above)
Sutter Medical Center, Department of Orthopedic Surgery
“As an orthopedic surgeon, I describe the practice of operating on someone as technical and cognitive. You develop the actual physical technique of performing surgery by training—that’s why surgeons have a longer residency [than most other physicians]—and experience. I’ve been doing orthopedic surgery since 1983, and somewhere along the line I came to realize that the mental or emotional aspect of performing surgery is just as important as the physical technique. I really do think there’s a reverential bond that develops between doctor and patient during the process of operating. The patient is completely vulnerable to the surgeon, even if the surgeon is only operating on a hand that’s been numbed. That classic oath that we take to first do no harm has to be reassessed because the physical act of cutting into somebody means you are assaulting the body in certain ways. Therefore, I think it’s a real privilege to operate on another human being. I’m honored that patients come to me. They’re entrusting me to do surgery when they’re at their most vulnerable. It’s this mindset that I believe has helped me to become a better doctor.”